"Each generation, coming out of obscurity, must define its mission and fulfill or betray it." Frantz Fanon - The Wretched of the Earth James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership. {r}evolution

Our mission is to nurture the transformational leadership capacities of individuals and organizations committed to creating productive, sustainable, ecologically responsible, and just communities. Through local, national and international networks of activists, artists and intellectuals we foster new ways of living, being and thinking to face the challenges of the 21st century.

Talking Peace Talking Peace

Thinking for ourselves

Talking Peace

By Shea Howell

August 9, 2011

There is an edginess in Detroit. The most disturbing reflection of this is the increase in the number of murders in the city. The Detroit News reported that homicides are up 15% over last year and if they continue at this pace we will face one of the highest murder rates in years.

There is nothing new in media reports about murders in Detroit. Our city has long been cast as one that is crime ridden. More than a quarter of a century ago Time Magazine described us as a city where “guns come close to ranking as household appliances.”

What has gotten much less media attention is that fact that for the last three decades violent crime has actually been decreasing in the city. In 2010 not a single Detroit neighborhood was listed among those in major cities with the 25 highest crime rates.

The response to this increased violence by Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee has been to find ways to put more officers on the street. While many welcome his efforts, the idea that more police on the street will make us safer is one that no one really believes. It is an illusion of increased safety.

Much of the violence we face is the kind that erupts inside the walls of our homes or between friends and neighbors. All too often it is the first response by a young person to a perceived insult or threat. Petty crimes escalate into senseless shootings.

The underlying conditions that contribute to violence have long been factors in Detroit life. Unemployment and poverty are our constant companions. These do not explain the increased tensions among us.

The Mayor and the business-foundation complex that have been leading the charge to remake our city bear much of the responsibility for increasing tensions. In their zeal to justify their grand schemes they have created a heightened atmosphere of assault, emphasizing the deficits we face. They have fostered a language that disrespects the residents of the city, categorizing us as illiterate, incapable, unintelligent and needing guidance. After more than a year of this kind of steady dehumanizing talk, people find themselves internalizing the worst of these images.

Public conversation impacts individual lives and creates a cultural context that we all have to respond to in some way. When an elected mayor refers to the city he governs as “a hell hole” it has an effect that reverberates far beyond his later efforts to explain away the comment. When business and foundation interests justify their actions by claiming much of the city is illiterate, they sows seeds of doubt among people about their own capacities. When children are portrayed as incapable of learning and schools cast as disasters, we lose faith in ourselves and our future.

The constant reference to winners and losers, the unwillingness to foster compassion for one another or to celebrate the creative and enduring qualities that have sustained Detroit for decades contribute to a corrosive atmosphere in our city.

In contrast to this coarse public discourse, community organizations are finding new ways to create peace in our neighborhoods. The Coalition Against Police Brutality has initiated a Peace Zones for Life program. They are calling upon the City to help facilitate community based conflict resolution strategies.

But they are not waiting for such help. Instead the coalition is actively creating circles for peace, drawing upon trusted individuals in neighborhoods to become mediators and counselors. These efforts help us all transform ourselves into people who help each other find our way to healthy, respectful relationships.

Instead of pulling officers from behind desks to patrol streets, Chief Godbee would do well to find new ways to work with those in the neighborhoods who know our safety comes from how we learn to treat one another.

ON Being Krista Tippet

ON Being Krista Tippet
January 19, 2012
We travel to Detroit to meet the civil rights legend Grace Lee Boggs. We find the 96-year-old philosopher surrounded by creative, joyful people and projects that defy more familiar images of decline. It's a kind of parallel urban universe with much to teach all of us about meeting the changes of our time.
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Boggs Center 3061 Field St. Detroit, MI 48214

James and Grace Lee boggs Center To Nurture community Leadership
hpp//www.boggscenter.org / {r}evolution - the two side non-violent revolution in values.
The Boggs Center was founded in 1995 by friends and associates of James Boggs (1919 -1993) and Grace Lee Boggs (1915 - ) to honor and continue their legacy as movement activists and theoreticians.
Our aim is to help grassroots activists develop themselves into visionary leaders and critical thinkers who can devise proactive strategies for rebuilding and respiriting our cities and rural communities from the ground up, demonstrate the power of ideas in changing ourselves, our reality, and demystify leadership.